Michelle Bachelet

Veronica Michelle Bachelet Jeria (29 September 1951-) was President of Chile from 11 March 2006 to 11 March 2010 (succeeding Ricardo Lagos and preceding Sebastian Pinera) and from 11 March 2014 to 11 March 2018 (interrupting Pinera's terms). She was the leader of the Socialist Party of Chile and the first woman to serve as President of Chile.

Biography
Veronica Michelle Bachelet Jeria was born in Santiago, Chile on 29 September 1951, the daughter of Brigadier-General Alberto Bachelet. In 1974, following the 1973 Chilean coup d'etat, her father was tortured to death by Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship. She and her mother were also tortured, and she was later able to go into exile in Australia, where her brother had moved in 1969; she also lived in East Germany before returning to Chile in 1979. She became a physician in 1983, and she became politically active with the Socialist Party of Chile during the second half of the 1980s and became a Central Committee member in 1995. In 2000, she became Minister of Health under President Ricardo Lagos, and she went on to serve as Defense Minister from 2002 to 2004. In 2006, she was elected President of Chile with 53.5% of the vote, defeating National Renewal candidate Sebastian Pinera. During her first term, she introduced pay equality legislation, delivered maternity packages to newborns, gave free computers to underprivileged students, opened 18 new subway stations in Santiago, signed a freedom of information bill in 2008, and presided over a growth in the economy and a decline in poverty. She left office with an 84% approval rating; she was limited to one consecutive term, and Pinera defeated her favored candidate Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle. She returned to the presidency in 2014 with 62% of the vote, and she guaranteed free education for the poorest 60% of students, raised the corporate tax rate, expanded environmental protections, legalized same-sex civil unions, and lifted the abortion ban in August 2017. Corruption scandals involving her son and daughter-in-law destroyed her popularity, and she left office in March 2018 with a mere 39% approval rating. In September 2018, she became the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.